Do any of you find this weird?

[flips123]

I was looking at the website for my upcoming meet and I got confused and it got me thinking.On the website they said it was $65.00 per gymnast.My club charged us $100.00 per gymnast.We only have one coach and the meet is really close so I dont see why they would charge us another meet/coaching fee...Can someone put this into perspective for me?

 

[Aussie_coach]

Meets do cost a lot of money for clubs. They must pay for the coaches to attend, but also if the coaches are missing regular classes they teach they must pay a replacement coach as well. many gyms also pay for transport costs for coaches. There may be judges fees involved, either the gym paying judges or the gym paying a judging fee if they have no judge to provide. I don't know how it works in the US but in Australia there is a $250 fee that must be paid to the competition if you don't supply a judge.

If you club does supply judges some of the meet fees will go towards training the judges and updating them so the are still eligible to judge.

Your meet fees could also cover many other things such as choreography time, music, music rights and so on.

Also it may be that the meet expenses are spread out across the meets, so perhaps with just one coach going and the meet being close by you are paying more than you should this time, but maybe in the future for a more expensive meet you will be paying less than you should so that it all evens out in the end.

Running a gym in general is very expensive. Its not just coaches fees but also fees for the gym owner, secretary, cleaners, replacing the equipment, buying new equipment, electricity bills, water wills, phone bills, internet bills, insurance bills and so on.

Almost all gyms run their team programs at a loss, and only make profit with their recreational programs. This is because of the number of hours you do and the one on one attention needed would mean that if you were charged what it really cost to run the team then nobody would be able to afford to be on the team. So the gym must recuperate costs somewhere or close down.

 

[vagymmomma]

As a parent who has reviewed team budgets, it's always amazing how quickly the costs add up for a meet. Even for a local meet, a coach is typically paid mileage, coach session fees, and a daily per diem. The more gymnasts there are on a team, the more the costs are spread.

As an example, the standard mileage rate is 55 cents per mile. If the meet is 20 miles away, your coach would be entitled to $22 (.55 x 2 (each way) x 20 miles). A session fee is probably somewhere between $60 - 80 per session. At large meets like states these can be many sessions. The standard per diem rate is $46 a day (some areas are higher). These are per coach amounts as well.

If you're really curious, just ask and someone can probably explain it. But I know at our gym there's no fluff built into the rates. It's just an expensive sport.

 

[gymdog]

Well, I find a $35 increase weird, yeah. Unless they're spreading the expected cost of all the meets, including regionals and nationals (more expensive due to less gymnasts attending). Then I suppose a $35 per gymnast per meet increase might be realistic, I don't know. How many gymnasts would be attending the meet?

Then again some booster clubs have quite an expensive "assessment" or "team" fee in the hundreds per season. That generally doesn't encompass just meets though, but probably breaks down to a fair amount per meet. However when I went to a gym who did this, they all paid all the regionals and nationals fees (meet + apparel) for optionals (plus airfare if applicable). Maybe even states, I can't remember. All optionals at this gym made it to regionals, pretty much a given by the standards of the program - so I suppose you could subtract that amount of money.

 

[flips123]

Well, I find a $35 increase weird, yeah. Unless they're spreading the expected cost of all the meets, including regionals and nationals (more expensive due to less gymnasts attending). Then I suppose a $35 per gymnast per meet increase might be realistic, I don't know. How many gymnasts would be attending the meet?

Then again some booster clubs have quite an expensive "assessment" or "team" fee in the hundreds per season. That generally doesn't encompass just meets though, but probably breaks down to a fair amount per meet. However when I went to a gym who did this, they all paid all the regionals and nationals fees (meet + apparel) for optionals (plus airfare if applicable). Maybe even states, I can't remember. All optionals at this gym made it to regionals, pretty much a given by the standards of the program - so I suppose you could subtract that amount of money.

Well there are only 4 people in my level who are ready to compete at this meet,but earlier in the day there are 6 other people in different levels competing.Possibly because my gym coach doesnt feel like driving the 25 miles on a sunday morning,so she's staying in hotel overnight.We dont have out of state meets this year and we dont have a booster club either.I didnt really care about the inflation untill I found out that they also inflated our competition leotards and warm up costs by around 50 dollars per person.We are great friends with the gym owners and I just never thought of them inflating the costs.Im just trying to put it into perspective,not that Im mad about it...it cost what it costs.

 

[gymdog]

Well, $35 times 10 people is $350 total, so I guess that's reasonable considering the hotel stay, if the session reiumbursements are on the higher side.

 

[gym law mom]

I know some gyms pay their coaches more if they coach on Sunday---that might explain it.

 

[mpkbt]

I don't know if this applies in your case but we had to add to our warmup and leo fees for embroidering the team name and logo on them. It was an additional cost but I can't remember how much.

 

[Chalky]

Wow, I wish I got paid mileage or extra to coach on a Sunday, or got paid a per diem. I am worse off financially going to meets than if I stayed and coached classes at the gym.

 

[nevertooold]

A lot of meets charge a fee per level as well, around here it can be $25-$50 per level in addition to the per gymnast entry.
For uniforms you also have to take tax and shipping and handling into account.

But unless you go to a non-profit or a YMCA, then why shouldn't the owners upcharge? It is a business like any other.

 

[gymdog]

Wow, I wish I got paid mileage or extra to coach on a Sunday, or got paid a per diem. I am worse off financially going to meets than if I stayed and coached classes at the gym.

True life.